With new bands like Pearl Jam,
Soundgarden, Alice in Chains and Nirvana appearing in
the early 90s, all the music industry was upside down. Those Seattle bands
were able to bring to the front a sound that was considered underground
before. This music style mixing elements of punk rock and metal we would now
call "grunge" would take out of the charts many hard rock bands with easy
ballads, bands we have to admit that were not very hot for the last couple
of years.

Even if Pearl Jam got a huge success
with its excellent first album,
Ten, it's Nirvana that set the new standards with its 2nd
album, Nevermind, and particularly with the track "Smells Like Teen
Spirit" with a video that broke all the records on MTV. That composition
with the unforgettable guitar riff and melody is still as fun to hear, even
after many years and hundreds of listenings. Kurt Cobain quickly became
considered like a genius writing songs full of anger on a music going from
metal to acoustic ballads. Without being a great guitarist in a technical
way and without having the most powerful voice, he was able to deliver his
compositions with a very special emotion.

When Cobain was creating a totally
genius masterpiece, bassist Krist Novoselic and drummer Dave Grohl, two
excellent musicians, didn't have any choice but leaving the front stage to
that true living legend. Unfortunately, Cobain would have many problems to
deal with all the success and attention from the media. He was doing more
and more hard drugs until he was found dead in 1994. He was only 27.

After the death of Cobain, it was
impossible for the other 2 members to resume the Nirvana adventure without
its soul. So, the band offered us only 3 real albums, but we have the
feeling they did 10 albums when we realize their repertoire has almost
nothing bad.

After Nirvana, many alternative
artists were able to make their way to the charts and commercial radios. We
even had to change the definition of the word "alternative" that was used
before to talk about a music style outside mainstream standards. Thanks to
Nirvana, alternative rock has become popular.

There are many bands that followed
the Nirvana steps in the 90's. Many of them had the good sound and energy to
replace them, but they had all the same problem: they didn't have a
brilliant composer in the Kurt Cobain category, a genius we don't have the
opportunity to meet very often...

Richard Dion

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